docsconz

Very Cool. Suzi, that is not a bad photo at all. In fact it does a super job of getting the point across and the point is this is a dish that tells me I want to have it.

This is really no different than someone planning to visit Paris just to visit the museums and forego eating other than for fuel. Personally, I like to plan my vacations around food, but preferably at a place with other interesting components as well. Great food with Interesting Culture is a Winner. Interesting Culture without good food (an oxymoron?) is a loser to me. In other words good food is a necessary ingredient to me for my travels.

Happy New Year to All! 2004 was for me the greatest number of meals at great restaurants that I’ve had in a single year, even though they were concentrated in New York City and Spain. The Spanish ones in particular lived up to their star billing, although NYC held its own too. To be more specific I had the good fortune to dine at two Michelin *** , one Michelin ** and two Michelin *’s in Spain and three NYT ****, a few *** and numerous **’s. My top ten Restaurant Meals of 2004 1. El Raco de Can Fabes – September 29th?, 2004 lunch. This was an amazing meal in every aspect from food to décor to theater to meeting the man himself to the impeccable service. Even getting sick that night along with several other dining mates couldn’t dim the perfection of that meal. Overall, This might be the single finest restaurant dining experience of my life so far. 2.Arzak - Oct.2, 2004 lunch. This stands just a hair behind Can Fabes if only because the service was lesser than at Can Fabes. The food was every bit as spectacular as was getting to meet Juan Marie and Elena Arzak and getting a tour of the lab. 3. Per Se – May 20th dinner. This was a tour de force of remarkable dishes, excellent service and elegant setting. The thing setting this behind Can Fabes and Arzak was that the level of vefry successful creativity was just a notch behind the other two. 4. Sant Pau – Sept. 28 lunch. Totally outstanding and in most other years would have been number one on my list. Carme Ruscalleda’s food and restaurant are glorious. 5. WD-50 Dec. 11th dinner. To me this is the quintessential NYC restaurant that combines great tasting creative food in a very hip setting. This is also the most new Spanish restaurant that I have been to outside of Spain. Of course it is Spanish only in its creative sensibility and artistic expression on the plate. 6. The Inn at Erlowest – August 6 dinner. The tasting menu was a revelation of world class haute cuisine in my backyard. I have returned numerous times without disappointment. 7. Abac – September 27th. Another incredible meal that hit on all cylinders. This restaurant could be equally at home in NYC. I really do have to post a detailed report on our meal there. This restaurant and Chef Xavier Pellicer certainly deserves a thread of its own on eGullet. Mea Culpa. 8. Ramiro – Oct.6 lunch. This was a totally unpretentious and extraordinary shellfish feast as recommended by Miguel Cardoso. This was exactly what I was dreaming of when I planne to go to Lisbon. 9. Sushi Yasuda – December 16th lunch. One of the two finest sushi meals I have ever had or likely will ever have. This ranks slightly higher on my list than Kuruma Zushi because I think it is a better value and I felt a bit more comfortable there. 10.Aligue – September 25 Lunch. Food up there with the big boys. This restaurant in Manresa, Catalunya only lags in terms of the setting. 11. Kuruma Zushi – December 11 lunch. This was my first high end sushi ever and it was extraordinary. The price was extraordinary as well, although it was worth it. Yasuda is higher because I think it was more bang for the buck 12. Babbo – December 14th dinner. Great food, I enjoyed a feast of offal, some of which I had for the first time. The food overcame any hesitation I previously had with flying colors. This might have ranked higher on my list but for good but not superior service 13.Amma - January 22nd dinner. Still the best Indian food I have ever had as well as some of the best food I’ve ever had in a very welcoming environment. I have yet to visit Devi. That will likely be on my list for 2005.. 14. Hearth – March dinner. An excellent meal despite the fact that Marco Canora wasn’t in the kitchen that night. 15. Alain Ducasse at the Essex House – Dec. 10, 2004. For the most part superb dining in an extremely elegant atmosphere. Several notable mis-steps keep it out of my top-ten, even though I had the truffle tasting menu. Honorable Mentions: Best Chinese: Grand Sichuan International – May 19th dinner. Excellent food, although the overall experience was not enough to crack this list. New Green Bo and No. 1 Dumpling House are worthy mentions as well. Sripraphai - December 13th dinner. Excellent food, perhaps the best Thai I have ever had. It certainly blew away my experience at Franny's – December 15th dinner. Truly superb food, although overpriced. Chez Sophie – Multiple dinner. Consistently excellent food. It is totally reliable in my neck of the woods. Txoco in Getaria October 3 lunch. fresh Grilled Fish alfresco on a beautiful day by the seashore. It is hard to beat that. In another year this is near the top. Cinc Sentits September 28th dinner. This had potential for a higher ranking if I wasn't already so full before I got there. This is a totally charming restaurant with beautiful and tasty creative cuisine in a lovely Barcelona neighborhood setting. Totonno's Coney Island May 14th lunch. This was part of the NYC Pizza Survey and superb pizze they were. This was a thoroughly enjoyable day. Biggest Disappointment: Jean-Georges – March dinner. This was a disaster, but not so much due to the food as a botched reservation. We were supposed to have a table for eight in the Main Dining Room, but they wound up putting us in Nougatine in fairly cramped quarters. They did wind up letting us order the tasting menu for everyone from the main dining room. The problem was that it didn’t appeal to everyone’s taste and after the initial table debacle, things got ugly. Yours?

I roasted some nice Flying Pigs Farm rib roasts and my sister-in-law made black-eyed peas. I went south for the weekend - to New Jersey!

Thanks for those posting here to help me decide where to best apply my donations for the relief effort.

If that is the case one might be better off buying the issues of particular interest as they come out. I haven't received my new issue yet.

Someday we might need to add it to the comparison! Someday. It's probably no worse than what I spent at Ducasse. It will be awhile before I get to do anything like that again, though.

There are some on these boards who will be very happy with this review.

Strong words!

Unless particular libraries carry it, I think not. It is worth the subscription though.

I'm not sure how much credit he currently deserves, although Rocco is a very talented man. I, for one, would love to see him get back up on his feet and use that talent the way I know he can. He can cook with anybody.

It is agood sized kitchen that is well organized in its layout and workspaces. It is actually bigger than I expected it to be, but my expectations were based on remembering 71 Clinton.

Bummer! That was one of the better restaurants in Albany. Any idea if they will be re-opening in a new location?

The thing to consider about this is we don't really know what the waiter actually said. Perhaps he said it as reported. Perhaps it is a paraphrase. Perhaps he said no such thing. Therefore, with all due respect to the poster, take the statement in the first post on this thread with a grain of salt. The important point in the post is that the product as described sounds very interesting and one I suspect Chef Dufresne is capable of doing.

Here, here! I wish I would have seen that on the menu when I was there recently. It sounds good regardless of the purported hyperbole..

Sounds good. I will have to add it to my short list of Sushi places to try.

The key word here is "judicious". This is true for almost any ingredient, except perhaps truffles.

The ironic thing, Michael, is that I have too much of a sweet tooth! I love all of those things that you mention, although they can be too sweet. I love cannoli, but most Sicilian Cassata cakes are simply too sweet for my taste. I love Drake's cakes, but I can't stand Hostess because they are too sweet. I like sweet desserts so long as the sweetness doesn't overshadow the essential flavor components of the dessert. The thing is I prefer to save my desserts for dessert.

It is not the addition of fruit or even sugar that bothers may. It is the level of imbalance that has become typical that is the problem. All of the preparations mentioned above achieve a balance of acid, salt, spice, fat and sweet. I'll take a well prepared foie gras with sweet accompaniment any time. The same is true for a good dessert wine. Sure it is sweet, but a good one is not cloying. It is balanced by adequate acidity.

Great story, winegeek. I have been fortunate enough to have had more than my share of good to great wines over the years, but three experiences stand out in my memory as defining ones. One was during a grand tasting of white Burgundies put together by Terry Robards in Lake Placid, N.Y. in the early 90's. He had an array of chardonnays from across the terroir - 24 in all- that we tasted blind. I was pleased that I nailed the 1990 Jacques Prieur Montrachet as my favorite. It had such depth and minerally soul. It was astounding. This tasting was also my first of Chablis. At the time I didn't really care for them, although subsequntly I found them a taste to return to more and more. Another seminal experience was also having dinner at a friend's house in the mid-90's. I was not very experience with red Burgundies and he served a Richebourg from Gros Freres (the vintage escapes my memory but I want to say late 80's) with a roasted salmon with sesame glaze that knocked my socks off. The common ingredient of both experiences (besides the fact that both included Burgundies) was that the wines were distinctive and complex. By this time I had already been drinking good wine on a fairly regular basis. These were unlike anything I'd ever had before. I find that a truly great wine doesn't get tired or tiring over the course of an evening if the bottle even manages to last that long. I too have found that very same Clois de Truffieres to be like that. My first experience though was perhaps the most important in that it really opened up my mind to the possibilities of wine. It took place while in Medical School in the mid 80's at a dinner at the home of one of my Professors. He poured a St. Emilion (I don't remember the vintage or producer) that was the first red wine that I found truly compelling. In addition he poured a vintage port that also blew me away. It was at that point that I felt wine was something worth discovering.

But then others who don't go as often now because of the smoking may go more frequently and enjoy it more. I have a hard time believing that this will be enforced, although I would love to see it so. My biggest quibble with visiting Europe is the smoking, especially indoors in restaurants.

Since this level of sushi was entirely new to me I was more than happy to leave the driving to the chefs. That the price, especially at Kuruma was as high as it was surprised me in that I expected it to be expensive, but not that expensive. I'm not complaining about the cost, just registering my naivete. Both meals were exceptional. It is just that at those prices I would much sooner and more frequently return to Yasuda.

Interesting. Not once was the word omekase used at either Kuruma or Yasuda. I simply sat down to eat sushi and sashimi and I was given what the chef wanted me to have. I didn't complain nor did I have need to. All I did was enjoy.

The biggest one I look for is friskiness. If it is frisky, it most likely hasn't been in the tank too long and is in decent health.

This is something that has bothered me also. I much prefer the inroads of "savory" into the realm of dessert than that of "sweet" into the realm of savory. That is not to say that some sugar isn't useful as a balancing agent in many a dish. The key word there, though, is balancing. Too much food is being produced in a cloyingly sweet fashion, including at some better restaurants. This discussion has been covered somewhat in the thread on Cinc Sentits in The Spain and Portugal Forum.